As has become a rite of passage for rumored Apple products, the company's long buzzed-about 12.9-inch "iPad Pro" was allegedly shown off in a series of photos posted to Chinese microblogging site Weibo on Monday, suggesting that it could house a USB type-C port or a second Lightning connector.

A trio of oddly diminutive shots, first noted by HDBlog.it, depict an iPad-like device with what appears to be a solid Apple logo inlaid on its rear. A camera and microphone hole sit in the upper-right, next to a pair of switches set into the curve of the right edge.

The left side holds a slot that could be for a USB type-C or Lightning connector, while the bottom left is home to a headphone jack and iPhone 6-style speaker grille.

It's difficult to discern the scale of the device, as there is no object nearby for reference, and none of the shots show its full length. Additionally, it's unclear if it actually houses any components or is simply a shell.

Relatively little is known about the rumored jumbo iPad, though it is believed to ship with an A8X processor and could also feature USB expansion ports, new fast charging technology, and a stylus. Production is said to have been delayed until this fall thanks to yield issues with the display, which is the latest Apple device rumored to sport Sharp's IGZO technology.

An extra lightning port on the side could be used to dock the thing horizontally. I remember that some of the early leaks of the original iPad _also_ contained a side port like that... but when it came out it was nowhere to be found.

If this is legit...I'm pretty sure it would be USB-C, as I can think of absolutely no benefit to adding a second lightning connector...

I can, so you can mount it in each orientation. Either 2x Lightning or 2x USB-C, but I can't imagine it being one of each on different sides of the device. Personally, I'm hoping we see USB-C across the board.

That being said, they could easily up the clock speed in the Pro, to 1.6 or 1.7GHz.

1.6 or 1.7 makes no difference to me at all.

It should have an A9 or A9x chip. If it's not ready yet, then they should wait.

I was looking forward to buying an iPad Pro, but if it's going to come with an A8X, just like in the Air 2, then I doubt that I'll upgrade, because it wouldn't really be an upgrade, more like a sidegrade, and I would just wait for the next iPad Pro 2, which will be more powerful.

It has been in development for a long time. I wouldn't doubt that some prototypes have A7 CPU's in them

Why would Apple make a "pro" model that uses the same chip as the current model?

Maybe it is expected to ship at WWDC time frame!

Also, from those photos, it's hard to see scale of course, but it looks like that it's definitely thicker than the Air 2.

The A8X chip in the Air 2 is no slouch, but I would expect and hope that a "pro" model would be even more powerful than the Air 2.

You assume the same exact implementation which I seriously doubt would happen. For example offering 4 GB of Ram is a real option to give the poor extended features. Make that LPDDR4 RAM and you will get a performance boost right there. Note too that Samsung is supposedly shipping LPDDR4 RAM right now. People often underestimate the importance of bandwidth in the memory subsystem when it comes to increasing performance. Then there is the potential for a substantial performance increase from a solid clock rate boost, say to 2.2 GHz.

In other words there is lots of performance potential in the A8X that could be realized without engineering an entirely new processor.

Like I've stated before, I'll most likely be getting an iPad Pro, but it had better be more powerful than the Air 2, and not just feature a larger display, otherwise, what's the point?

The point is we don't know what Apple has planned. However we can't assume that the machine will be a poor performer or just a modest bump above the IPad Air 2. For all we know the machine could introduce a new architecture that Apple implements parallel to the A series.

Instead of looking at GHz numbers consider instead percentage of performance increase. If the Pro ran 25% faster of 50% faster would you go for it.

It should have an A9 or A9x chip. If it's not ready yet, then they should wait.

You don't even know what A9 would contain. Maybe A9 is an A8 with the cellular modem hardware built in. The point is Apple may stress other features over a raw performance upgrade.

I was looking forward to buying an iPad Pro, but if it's going to come with an A8X, just like in the Air 2, then I doubt that I'll upgrade, because it wouldn't really be an upgrade, more like a sidegrade, and I would just wait for the next iPad Pro 2, which will be more powerful.

It may be a side upgrade but you don't know that yet. All Apple would really have to do is up the power budget a watt or two to get a sizable performance jump. Right now it appears that they limit the A8's clock rate for purely power reasons to get their stated battery lifetimes. An iPad pro should have a sizable battery advantage thus leading to higher performance out of the SoC.

It has been in development for a long time. I wouldn't doubt that some prototypes have A7 CPU's in them
Maybe it is expected to ship at WWDC time frame!
You assume the same exact implementation which I seriously doubt would happen. For example offering 4 GB of Ram is a real option to give the poor extended features. Make that LPDDR4 RAM and you will get a performance boost right there. Note too that Samsung is supposedly shipping LPDDR4 RAM right now. People often underestimate the importance of bandwidth in the memory subsystem when it comes to increasing performance. Then there is the potential for a substantial performance increase from a solid clock rate boost, say to 2.2 GHz.

In other words there is lots of performance potential in the A8X that could be realized without engineering an entirely new processor.
The point is we don't know what Apple has planned. However we can't assume that the machine will be a poor performer or just a modest bump above the IPad Air 2. For all we know the machine could introduce a new architecture that Apple implements parallel to the A series.

The HTC One M9 has LPDDR4 now so it's definitely an option, particularly for a lower volume product.

Why would Apple make a "pro" model that uses the same chip as the current model?

Also, from those photos, it's hard to see scale of course, but it looks like that it's definitely thicker than the Air 2.

The A8X chip in the Air 2 is no slouch, but I would expect and hope that a "pro" model would be even more powerful than the Air 2.

Like I've stated before, I'll most likely be getting an iPad Pro, but it had better be more powerful than the Air 2, and not just feature a larger display, otherwise, what's the point?

Like I posted above, I think the A8X rumor is from last year, when the iPad Air 2 was announced. In the absence of an update from the rumor mill, AI has simply reposted that old rumor. It might not be current.

Like I posted above, I think the A8X rumor is from last year, when the iPad Air 2 was announced. In the absence of an update from the rumor mill, AI has simply reposted that old rumor. It might not be current.

I got a free surface pro 3 i5 8gb last week and I would love something similar from Apple. I had doubts about the form factor but it works really well. Unfortunately it's not much use to me as I need a Mac for some essential applications so there is little point carrying both around with me. An iPad of that size and power running full OS X would be an insta buy for me.